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In Pennsylvania, a Wall of Names

The President and First Lady visited a large stone memorial marking the crash site of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.Credit
Michael Appleton for The New York Times

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — The sun rose brightly here on Sunday morning, burning off the mist that hovered over the field where United Airlines Flight 93, hurtling through the sky at more than 575 miles per hour, crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. At the moment of impact, 10:03 a.m., the field was empty.

On Sunday, it was filled with thousands of people. And at 10:03 a.m., there was only silence.

It was very much a memorial service for the 40 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 93 when it plowed into a field here in the rolling hills of southwestern Pennsylvania.

In an extraordinary act of rebellion, those men and women — who had just left Newark and were headed to San Francisco — devised a plan, held a vote, stormed the cockpit and sought to wrest control of the jet from their hijackers.

They failed to retake the plane, but they forced the Boeing 757 to crash, preventing it from hitting its likely target, the United States Capitol, just 20 minutes away by air.

The crash site is now part of a 2,200-acre park operated by the National Park Service.

More than 700 relatives of the passengers and crew members have been here for several days of get-togethers and services, including a dedication ceremony for a “wall of names” memorial on Saturday with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived here after the service on Sunday. They somberly laid a wreath of white roses in front of the wall. Mr. Obama did not address the crowd, but he suddenly strode to the rope line, campaign-style, to greet people, forcing his security detail to race to catch up with him.

He spent about an hour shaking hands, posing for photographs (including with a baby), and signing autographs. He did not meet privately with family members, but talked with many on the rope line and hugged some. As he and Mrs. Obama prepared to leave, they walked hand in hand across the field to the actual crash site, which is off limits to the public. As they headed for their helicopter, the crowd applauded and cheered.

The service on Sunday began after thousands of people had assembled by the memorial wall. They paused in silence to mark the times of the other attacks — at 8:46, when the first hijacked plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York; at 9:03, when the second plane struck the south tower; and at 9:37, when a third plane hit the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.

After the moment of silence at 10:03 for their own loved ones, the family members here walked across the stage, one or two at a time, and read the names of their sons, daughters, sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers. Bells tolled for each.

Wallace Miller, the Somerset County coroner, who more or less took charge after the crash on 9/11, then recited a litany during which the audience repeated the phrase, “We remember” after each line.

Mr. Miller, who choked up during his reading, has led the families through much of their grieving over the last 10 years, and many revere him. They clapped after his reading, and later in the service the mention of his name drew a standing ovation and sustained applause.

Carole O’Hare, 59, whose mother, Hilda Marcin, 79, was a passenger on Flight 93 — she was moving from New Jersey to be with Ms. O’Hare in California — said in an interview afterward that seeing Mr. Miller was the day’s highlight.

“Wally was our savior,” she said.

Many of the speakers sought to pinpoint what distinguishes the victims here from those of the other 9/11 attacks. “There is nothing with which to compare the passenger uprising of 10 years ago,” said Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania. “Their uprising marks the moment in history when Americans showed what makes us different. We refuse to be victims. We refuse to settle for the term ‘survivor.’ Captivity will not suit us.”

Former Gov. Tom Ridge, who after the attacks became the first secretary of homeland security, told the crowd, many of whom were sitting on the ground: “Your very presence is a powerful message of comfort and understanding and love to this incredible group of assembled families.” At that point, the families rose from their seats in front of the podium and turned to applaud the thousands of people behind them.

John Hendricks, founder and chairman of Discovery Communications, delivered the keynote address. One of his employees, Elizabeth Wainio, 27, was on Flight 93. She was a rising star at the company, he said, working her way up from retail sales to become district manager for New York and New Jersey, and on Sept. 11 was heading to a business meeting in San Francisco.

During the hijacking, Ms. Wainio called her stepmother and told her, “It hurts me that this is going to be so much harder for you all than it is for me.”

After the service, family members had another chance to look at the wall of names. It was especially poignant for Carol Heiderich, 57, a human resources specialist from California whose brother, Jason M. Dahl, was the pilot of Flight 93. Another brother, Ken, was killed in Vietnam in 1971, and his name is on that war’s memorial wall in Washington.

This only struck her on Saturday, when the memorial here was unveiled. “I thought it was a little sad,” she said, that two of her brothers’ deaths are marked so publicly. “But they were both involved in public events.”

“I’ll be very pleased they will be put back in their final resting place,” Ms. O’Hare said of the remains. Only 8 percent of the total remains were ever recovered, Mr. Miller said; most of the bodies vaporized on impact.

“Ninety-two percent of them are already there,” Ms. O’Hare said, “and we’re just putting the rest back where they belong.”

Ms. Heiderich said it was fitting that the collective burial of intermingled remains was taking place now, 10 years later, because the families had become so close. “This is another final step that needs to happen,” she said.